ECO-FEMINISTIC AND ECO-FRIENDLY CONCEPTS REFLECTED IN THE SELECT NOVELS OF GITHA HARIHARAN (Pages 01-08) by Dr. R. Manimozhi in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

Naturally in all walks of life nature has been treated with respect and admiration. Down through the ages, nature is a subject which has fascinated most of the foreign as well as Indian writers in English. Nature oriented literature focuses on creating awareness in man regarding his environment. Literature serves as the mirror of a society, its changes, developments and crises. The twentieth century saw the rapid popularity of a movement that concerned the environment, ecology and nature in its magnitude. The threat posed due to the acute damage caused to the global environment, wild life, wilderness and human health has been the concern of environmentalists and writers. This revolutionary movement gave rise to a verdurous offshoot in literature called Eco-studies or Green literature. Having originated in the West, the movement picked up momentum throughout the globe and now has gained different dimensions through literature. Eco criticism is an environment oriented study of literature. William Rueckert coined the term “Ecocriticism” in1978, with the publication of his essay “Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism” to refer, “the application of ecology and ecological concepts to the study of literature” (107) There is no way for the writers to exit without sketching the environment in any mode in their works. No doubt Githa Hariharan one of the contemporary writers of India has focused the human beings bond with the environment in her novels. Hariharan sketch the environment admirably to describe the occasions and in some places the eco-feminism is exposed to define the inner crisis of her protagonists. The main objective of this paper is to attempt an eco-critical analysis of Githa Hariharan’s The Thousand Faces of Night and In Times of Siege to understand the eco-feministic and eco-friendly concepts reflected in her novels. Keywords: Ecocriticism, Nature oriented literature, environmental awareness, ecology and nature, global environment, wild life, wilderness, environmentalists & writers, Eco-studies or Green Literature, eco-critical analysis, eco-feministic& eco-friendly concepts etc.